Pol Pot Meets Kim Il Sung

In October 1977, Pol Pot and his delegation of brother-in-law Ieng Sary, and sister-in-law Ieng Tirith, arrived in Pyongyang where they were given the highest level of enthusiastic welcome, meriting no less than 26 separate stories in official North Korean media, non stop radio and TV coverage, innumerable photographs above the fold on the party organs, and at least 6 separate meeting with the Great leader Kim Il Sung, who met Pol Pot at the airport, bringing along a crowd of hundreds of thousands cheering and waving flowers. who lined the road to Pyongyang.

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Upon his arrival, “The great leader Comrade Kim Il-song firmly shook hands with Comrade Pol Pot at Pyongyang Airport” where “The great leader Comrade Kim Il-song posed for a commemorative photo with the party and government delegation of Democratic Cambodia headed by Comrade Pol Pot”

Then “Comrade Pol Pot inspected an honor guard of the three services of the Korean People’s Army” was feted by “College coeds (who) courteously presented fragrant bunches of flowers to the great leader Comrade Kim Il-song and Comrade Pol Pot.”

The happy couple then continued on where the “chairman of the Pyongyang Administrative Committee, together with heroes of the republic and model workers, presented a statue of an anti-imperialist fighter to Comrade Pol Pot On 4 Oct 77″ after which “Singing and dancing, circular ranks of boy and girl students and artists enthusiastically welcomed the goodwill envoy of the Cambodian people with Kim Il-song in attendance at Kim Il-song square.”

Then apparently they arrived at their guesthouse and slept.

The next two days, October 5 and October 6, they got down to business and held several long working meetings where “Talks were held between the great leader Comrade Kim Il-song and Comrade Pol Pot” followed by together on the evening of 5 October going out on a date and taking in a show where “Comrade Pol Pot, together with the great leader Comrade Kim Il-song, mounted the stage at Mansudae Theater and presented the performers with a basket of flowers to congratulate them on their successful performance, posing for a commemorative photo with them” and they had an early night to rest up for another long day of work.

Pol Pot at Rest After a Long Life’s Work

On October 6, 1977, “The great leader Comrade Kim Il-song paid a return courtesy call on Comrade Pol Pot” and later “Talks were held between the great leader Comrade Kim Il-song and Comrade Pol Pot.”

The next day, October 7, 1977, Pol Pot was accorded the royal treatment welcomed by hundreds of thousands at the national stadium where “The great leader Comrade Kim Il-song and Comrade Pol Pot raised high their tightly clasped hands in acknowledgement of the crowd’s enthusiastic welcome at Moranbong Stadium ” where the Khmer Rouge delegation were honored by seating on “The presidential platform of the Pyongyang mass rally welcoming, with the great leader Comrade Kim Il-song in attendance, the party and government delegation of Democratic Cambodia headed by Comrade Pol Pot.”

The gathering was trumpeted by North Korean media who displayed photos of “Kim Il-song delivering a speech at the 7 October mass rally welcoming Pol Pot” and then the Great leader effectively popped the Big Question, cementing their relationship, when “The Great Leader Comrade Kim Il-song conferred the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on Comrade Pol Pot.”

The next morning, October 8 1977, “The Great leader Comrade Kim Il-song and Comrade Pol Pot signed the joint communique between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Democratic Cambodia” and “In congratulation of the 32nd anniversary of the founding of the Korean Workers Party, Comrade Pol Pot presented the great leader Comrade Kim Il-song with a basket of flowers and prayed for the long life of the great leader.”

Then, the honeymoon completed and the relationship consummated, “The great leader Comrade Kim Il-song cordially bade farewell to Comrade Pol Pot upon his departure from Pyongyang after successful completion of his visit to our nation” and, a separate story detailed “The great leader Comrade Kim Il-song firmly shook hands with Comrade Pol Pot on his departure from Pyongyang.”

The two leaders then returned to their day jobs of exterminating the human spirit from their people.

In an apparent effort to cheer himself up after his good pal, Comrade Pol Pot left him, the very next story on North Korean official media announced “The Great Leader Comrade Kim Il-song toured the newly built amusement park at the Taesongsan Recreation Center in Pyongyang.”

Pre-order Sympathy for the Devil, the new book by Nate Thayer

Sympathy for the Devil: A Journalist's Memoir from Inside Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge
I have been researching and writing Sympathy for the Devil: A Journalist's Memoir from Inside Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge for 25 years. For 25 years, I conducted original reporting to compile what is now an 800 page, unedited manuscript. I have accumulated millions of words of notes, hundreds of hours of audio and video recordings and hundreds of photographs, and … [More...]

About Nate Thayer

Nate Thayer is best known for having been the only person to interview Cambodian dictator Pol Pot 18 years after he fled to the jungles after presiding over the killing of nearly 2 million of his countrymen, but his Award-winning 25 year career as an investigative journalist has recognized him as one of the most acclaimed foreign correspondents of his generation.

Comments

“The two leaders then returned to their day jobs of exterminating the human spirit from their people.” Clearly this article has a counterrevolutionary bias, but good bourgeois propagandists try not to show it so brazenly.

I should prefer this article be categorized propaganda rather than what it is: a poor attempt at black humour on my part. The backdrop to the visit I found particularly cynical.
In September1977, in a message congratulating the Communist Party of Kampuchea on its 17th anniversary less than a week prior to this visit of Pol Pot to North Korea, Kim Jong-Il congratulated Pol Pot and his loyalists for having “wiped out…counterrevolutionary group of spies who had committed subversive activities and sabotage”
This was in the midst of the second wave of political purges of deemed enemies that would target 18 of the 23 members of the Central Committee of the CPK before it was interrupted by the Vietnamese invasion 14 months later.
What was not announced publicly was that both the two top chiefs of party internal security in charge of the killing apparatus were also present and held several working level meetings where they received both material aid and training, including North Korean advisers, on how to perfect the secret police and torture machinery of the Party to ensure all internal threats to Pol pot’s leadership were eliminated. Hundreds of thousands were killed who didn’t deserve to die. So really this trip to Pyongyang is no laughing matter.
Nate Thayer

The pictures showed are not relevant, unfortunately. The first one shows Kim Il Sung in Romania, the second one Hafez el Assad with Kim, the third one Pol Pot in agony in Thailand. Still pictures of Pol Pot exist, and a film also. I would love to see them.

I am really interested in such information as provided in this excellent article of yours. I also think a few Vietnamese people would know such information while they are much interested therein like me. For this reason, can I be allowed to translate your article into Vietnamese and have it on my blog? If so allowed, I will add under the translation entry the link leading to this article here and of course, won’t forget to mention Nate Thayer as its author.

My blog address: hahien.wordpress.com

Look forward to your kind feedback.

With best regards,

Ha Hien

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